If you are behind a proxy server, you will need to export the {{ic|http_proxy}} and {{ic|ftp_proxy}} environment variables. See [[proxy settings]] for more information.

+

If you are behind a proxy server, you will need to export the {{ic|http_proxy}} and {{ic|ftp_proxy}} environment variables. See [[Proxy settings]] for more information.

=== Prepare the storage drive ===

=== Prepare the storage drive ===

Line 210:

Line 210:

{{Warning|Partitioning can destroy data. You are '''strongly''' cautioned and advised to backup any critical data before proceeding.}}

{{Warning|Partitioning can destroy data. You are '''strongly''' cautioned and advised to backup any critical data before proceeding.}}

−

Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php GParted] is a good example, and is [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php provided as a "live" CD]. It is also included on live CDs of most Linux destributions such as [[Wikipedia:Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]] and [[Wikipedia:Linux Mint|Linux Mint]]. A drive should first be [[partitioning|partitioned]] and the partitions should be formatted with a [[File Systems|file system]] before rebooting.

+

Absolute beginners are encouraged to use a graphical partitioning tool. [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php GParted] is a good example, and is [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php provided as a "live" CD]. It is also included on live CDs of most Linux distributions such as [[Wikipedia:Ubuntu (operating system)|Ubuntu]] and [[Wikipedia:Linux Mint|Linux Mint]]. A drive should first be [[partitioning|partitioned]] and the partitions should be formatted with a [[File Systems|file system]] before rebooting.

It's possible to set up a swap file at any point after installation, so there is no need to decide on swap size now. See [[Swap]] for details if you wish to set up a swap partition now (but note that it's much easier to resize a file than a partition).

It's possible to set up a swap file at any point after installation, so there is no need to decide on swap size now. See [[Swap]] for details if you wish to set up a swap partition now (but note that it's much easier to resize a file than a partition).

Line 275:

Line 275:

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

+

+

If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), don't forget to format and activate it with:

+

+

# mkswap /dev/sda''X''

+

# swapon /dev/sda''X''

=== Mount the partitions ===

=== Mount the partitions ===

Line 322:

Line 327:

{{Tip|

{{Tip|

−

* Use the [http://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/ Mirrorlist Generator] to get an updated list for your country. HTTP mirrors are faster than FTP, because of something called [[Wikipedia:Keepalive|keepalive]]. With FTP, pacman has to send out a signal each time it downloads a package, resulting in a brief pause. For other ways to generate a mirror list, see [[Mirrors#Sorting mirrors|Sorting mirrors]] and [[Reflector]].

+

* Use the [https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/ Mirrorlist Generator] to get an updated list for your country. HTTP mirrors are faster than FTP, because of something called [[Wikipedia:Keepalive|keepalive]]. With FTP, pacman has to send out a signal each time it downloads a package, resulting in a brief pause. For other ways to generate a mirror list, see [[Mirrors#Sorting mirrors|Sorting mirrors]] and [[Reflector]].

* [https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ Arch Linux MirrorStatus] reports various aspects about the mirrors such as network problems with mirrors, data collection problems, the last time mirrors have been synced, etc.}}

* [https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ Arch Linux MirrorStatus] reports various aspects about the mirrors such as network problems with mirrors, data collection problems, the last time mirrors have been synced, etc.}}

Line 355:

Line 360:

# nano /mnt/etc/fstab

# nano /mnt/etc/fstab

−

{{Warning|Replace {{ic|1="codepage=cp437"}} with {{ic|1="codepage=437"}} or else when you next reboot, any mounts with this option will fail and systemd will halt and drop into recovery mode.}}

+

{{Warning|The fstab file should always be checked after generating it. If you made an EFI system partition earlier, then {{ic|genfstab}} has incorrectly added options to your EFI system partition. This will in fact ''prevent'' your computer from booting from that drive, so you need to remove all options for the EFI partition except for {{ic|noatime}}. For the other partitions that use it, be sure to replace {{ic|1="codepage=cp437"}} with {{ic|1="codepage=437"}} or else when you next reboot, any mounts with this option will fail and systemd will halt and drop into recovery mode. This should be fixed by linux 3.8}}

+

A few considerations:

A few considerations:

−

* Please take the time to align the columns properly, using spaces and the {{Keypress|Tab}} key, like in the examples from the [[fstab]] page. This way it's easier to read and also easier to spot a problem.

+

* Please take the time to align the columns properly, using spaces and the {{Keypress|Tab}} key, like in the examples from the [[fstab]] page. This way it's easier to read and also easier to spot a potential problem.

* Only the root ({{ic|/}}) partition needs {{ic|1}} for the last field. Everything else should have either {{ic|2}} or {{ic|0}} (see [[fstab#Field definitions]]).

* Only the root ({{ic|/}}) partition needs {{ic|1}} for the last field. Everything else should have either {{ic|2}} or {{ic|0}} (see [[fstab#Field definitions]]).

* The {{ic|1=data=ordered}} option can be removed, because it will be used automatically whether you specify it or not. No point in cluttering up your fstab.

* The {{ic|1=data=ordered}} option can be removed, because it will be used automatically whether you specify it or not. No point in cluttering up your fstab.

−

* Though its presence will not do any harm, you may remove the tmpfs on /tmp as this is now handled by systemd's tmp.mount unit. If you want to disable /tmp on tmpfs, you must remove the fstab line and mask tmp.mount. (systemctl's mask option)

+

* Though its presence will not do any harm, you may remove the {{ic|tmpfs}} entry, as this is now handled by systemd's {{ic|tmp.mount}} unit. To disable it, you must remove the fstab line and run:

+

: {{bc|# systemctl mask tmp.mount}}

=== Chroot and configure the base system ===

=== Chroot and configure the base system ===

Line 369:

Line 376:

# arch-chroot /mnt

# arch-chroot /mnt

+

{{Note|Use {{ic|arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash}} to chroot into a bash shell.}}

At this stage of the installation, you will configure the primary configuration files of your Arch Linux base system. These can either be created if they do not exist, or edited if you wish to change the defaults.

At this stage of the installation, you will configure the primary configuration files of your Arch Linux base system. These can either be created if they do not exist, or edited if you wish to change the defaults.

Line 456:

Line 464:

: {{bc|# hwclock --systohc --utc}}

: {{bc|# hwclock --systohc --utc}}

−

To synchronize your "UTC" time over the internet follow the page [[Network Time Protocol daemon|NTPd]].

+

+

To synchronize your "UTC" time over the internet, see [[Network Time Protocol daemon|NTPd]].

* '''localtime''' (discouraged; used by default in Windows)

* '''localtime''' (discouraged; used by default in Windows)

Line 487:

Line 496:

==== Hostname ====

==== Hostname ====

−

Set the [[Wikipedia:hostname|hostname]] to your liking, for example replace {{ic|''myhostname''}} with {{ic|''arch''}}.

+

Set the [[Wikipedia:hostname|hostname]] to your liking (e.g. ''arch''):

# echo ''myhostname'' > /etc/hostname

# echo ''myhostname'' > /etc/hostname

Line 508:

Line 517:

Alternatively, you can use {{Pkg|netcfg}}'s {{ic|net-auto-wired}}, which gracefully handles dynamic connections to new networks:

Alternatively, you can use {{Pkg|netcfg}}'s {{ic|net-auto-wired}}, which gracefully handles dynamic connections to new networks:

{{Note|When choosing repos, be sure to uncomment both the {{ic|[''repo_name'']}} header lines, as well as the {{ic|Include}} lines. Failure to do so will result in the selected repository being omitted! This is a very common error.}}

−

# nano /etc/pacman.conf

# nano /etc/pacman.conf

Line 581:

Line 592:

If you installed Arch Linux x86_64, it's recommended that you enable the {{ic|[multilib]}} repository, as well (to be able to run both 32 bit and 64 bit applications):

If you installed Arch Linux x86_64, it's recommended that you enable the {{ic|[multilib]}} repository, as well (to be able to run both 32 bit and 64 bit applications):

+

+

{{Note|When choosing repos, be sure to uncomment both the {{ic|[''repo_name'']}} header lines, as well as the lines below. Failure to do so will result in the selected repository being omitted! This is a very common error. A correct example for the multilib repository is found below.}}

[multilib]

[multilib]

+

SigLevel = PackageRequired

Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

+

+

You will then need to update the package list by running {{ic|pacman}} with the {{ic|-Sy}} switch. Failing to do so will generate "warning: database file for 'multilib' does not exist" error when next using pacman.

See [[Official Repositories]] for more information, including details about the purpose of each repository.

See [[Official Repositories]] for more information, including details about the purpose of each repository.

Line 598:

Line 614:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

# mkinitcpio -p linux

+

+

{{Note|Arch VPS installations on QEMU (e.g. when using {{ic|virt-manager}}) may need {{ic|virtio}} modules in {{ic|mkinitcpio.conf}} to be able to boot.

+

+

{{hc|# nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf|2=

+

MODULES="virtio virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net"}}}}

=== Set the root password and add a regular user ===

=== Set the root password and add a regular user ===

Line 609:

Line 630:

Then add a normal user account. For a more interactive way, you can use {{ic|adduser}}. However, below is the non-interactive way. The user ''archie'' is just an example.

Then add a normal user account. For a more interactive way, you can use {{ic|adduser}}. However, below is the non-interactive way. The user ''archie'' is just an example.

−

# useradd -m -g users -s /bin/bash ''archie''

+

# useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash ''archie''

# passwd ''archie''

# passwd ''archie''

Line 688:

Line 709:

2. Mount the UEFISYS partition at {{ic|/mnt/boot/efi}}, chroot and [[UEFI_Bootloaders#Setting_up_EFISTUB|copy the kernel and initramfs files]] as described below.

2. Mount the UEFISYS partition at {{ic|/mnt/boot/efi}}, chroot and [[UEFI_Bootloaders#Setting_up_EFISTUB|copy the kernel and initramfs files]] as described below.

−

2.1 Create {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch/}} directory.

+

* Create {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch/}} directory.

−

2.2 Copy {{ic|/boot/vmlinuz-linux}} to {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch/vmlinuz-arch.efi}} . The {{ic|.efi}} file extension is very important as some UEFI firmwares refuse to launch a file without the {{ic|.efi}} file extension. '''Important:''' Remember that the file is called vmlinu'''z''', but not vmlinu'''x'''.

+

* Copy {{ic|/boot/vmlinuz-linux}} to {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch/vmlinuz-arch.efi}}. The {{ic|.efi}} file extension is very important as some UEFI firmwares refuse to launch a file without this extension. '''Important:''' Remember that the file is called vmlinu'''z''', but not vmlinu'''x'''.

3. Every time the kernel and initramfs files are updated in {{ic|/boot}}, they need to be updated in {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch}}. This can be automated either [[UEFI Bootloaders#Sync EFISTUB Kernel in UEFISYS partition using Systemd|using systemd]] or [[UEFI Bootloaders#Sync EFISTUB Kernel in UEFISYS partition using Incron|using incron]] (for non-systemd setups).

+

Every time the kernel and initramfs files are updated in {{ic|/boot}}, they need to be updated in {{ic|/boot/efi/EFI/arch}}. This can be automated either [[UEFI Bootloaders#Sync EFISTUB Kernel in UEFISYS partition using Systemd|using systemd]] or [[UEFI Bootloaders#Sync EFISTUB Kernel in UEFISYS partition using Incron|using incron]] (for non-systemd setups).

−

4. In this guide you set up a bootloader GUI called rEFInd. Alternative bootloaders can be found on the page [[UEFI Bootloaders#Booting EFISTUB]].

+

3. In this guide you set up a bootloader GUI called rEFInd. Alternative bootloaders can be found on the page [[UEFI Bootloaders#Booting EFISTUB]].

Installation

You are now presented with a shell prompt, automatically logged in as root.

Change the language

Tip: These are optional for the majority of users. Useful only if you plan on writing in your own language in any of the configuration files, if you use diacritical marks in the Wi-Fi password, or if you would like to receive system messages (e.g. possible errors) in your own language.

By default, the keyboard layout is set to us. If you have a non-US keyboard layout, run:

# loadkeys layout

...where layout can be fr, uk, be-latin1, etc. See here for a comprehensive list.

The font should also be changed, because most languages use more glyphs than the 26 letter English alphabet. Otherwise some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. Note that the name is case-sensitive, so please type it exactly as you see it:

# setfont Lat2-Terminus16

By default, the language is set to English (US). If you would like to change the language for the install process (German, in this example), remove the # in front of the locale you want from /etc/locale.gen, along with English (US). Please choose the UTF-8 entry.

Establish an internet connection

The dhcpcd network daemon is started automatically at boot and it will attempt to start a wired connection, if available. Try pinging a website to see if it was successful. And since Google is always on...

Wired

Follow this procedure if you need to set up a wired connection via a static IP address.

If your computer is connected to an Ethernet network, in most cases, you will have one interface, called eth0. If you have additional network cards (apart from the one integrated on the motherboard, for example), their name will follow the sequence eth1, eth2, etc.

You need to know these settings:

Static IP address.

Subnet mask.

Gateway's IP address.

Name servers' (DNS) IP addresses.

Domain name (unless you're on a local LAN, in which case you can make it up).

You should now have a working network connection. If you do not, check the detailed Network Configuration page.

Wireless

Follow this procedure if you need wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi) during the installation process.

The wireless drivers and utilities are now available to you in the live environment of the installation media. A good knowledge of your wireless hardware will be of key importance to successful configuration. Note that the following quick-start procedure executed at this point in the installation will initialize your wireless hardware for use in the live environment of the installation media. These steps (or some other form of wireless management) must be repeated from the actual installed system after booting into it.

Also note that these steps are optional if wireless connectivity is unnecessary at this point in the installation; wireless functionality may always be established later.

Note: The following examples use wlan0 for the interface and linksys for the ESSID. Remember to change these values according to your setup.

The basic procedure will be:

(optional) Identify the wireless interface:

# lspci | grep -i net

Or, if using a USB adapter:

# lsusb

Ensure udev has loaded the driver, and that the driver has created a usable wireless kernel interface with iwconfig:

Note: If you do not see output similar to this, then your wireless driver has not been loaded. If this is the case, you must load the driver yourself. Please see Wireless Setup for more detailed information.

A small percentage of wireless chipsets also require firmware, in addition to a corresponding driver. If the wireless chipset requires firmware, you are likely to receive this error when bringing the interface up:

# ip link set wlan0 up

SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory

If unsure, invoke dmesg to query the kernel log for a firmware request from the wireless chipset.

Example output from an Intel chipset which requires and has requested firmware from the kernel at boot:

# dmesg | grep firmware

firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode

If there is no output, it may be concluded that the system's wireless chipset does not require firmware.

Warning: Wireless chipset firmware packages (for cards which require them) are pre-installed under /usr/lib/firmware in the live environment (on CD/USB stick) but must be explicitly installed to your actual system to provide wireless functionality after you reboot into it! Package installation is covered later in this guide. Ensure installation of both your wireless module and firmware before rebooting! See Wireless Setup if you are unsure about the requirement of corresponding firmware installation for your particular chipset.

It's possible to set up a swap file at any point after installation, so there is no need to decide on swap size now. See Swap for details if you wish to set up a swap partition now (but note that it's much easier to resize a file than a partition).

If you are not dual booting with Windows, then it is advisable to use GPT instead of MBR. Read GPT for a list of advantages.

If you have a BIOS motherboard (or plan on booting in BIOS compatibility mode) and you want to setup GRUB on a GPT-partitioned drive, you will need to create a 2 MiB "BIOS Boot Partition". Syslinux doesn't need one.

Double check and make sure that you are happy with the partition sizes as well as the partition table layout before continuing.

If you would like to start over, you can simply select Quit (or press Template:Keypress) to exit without saving changes and then restart cfdisk.

If you are satisfied, choose Write (or press Template:Keypress) to finalize and to write the partition table to the drive. Type "yes" and choose Quit (or press Template:Keypress) to exit cfdisk without making any more changes.

Simply partitioning is not enough; the partitions also need a filesystem. To format the partitions with an ext4 filesystem:

Warning: Double check and triple check that it's actually /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 that you want to format.

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

If you have made a partition dedicated to swap (code 82), don't forget to format and activate it with:

# mkswap /dev/sdaX
# swapon /dev/sdaX

Mount the partitions

Each partition is identified with a number suffix. For example, sda1 specifies the first partition of the first drive, while sda designates the entire drive.

To display the current partition layout:

# lsblk /dev/sda

Pay attention, because the mounting order is important.

First, mount the root partition on /mnt. Following the example above (yours may be different), it would be:

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Then mount the /home partition and any other separate partition (/boot, /var, etc), if you have any:

# mkdir /mnt/home
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home

In case you have a UEFI motherboard, mount the UEFI partition:

# mkdir /mnt/boot/efi
# mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/boot/efi

Select a mirror

Before installing, you may want to edit the mirrorlist file and place your preferred mirror first. A copy of this file will be installed on your new system by pacstrap as well, so it's worth getting it right.

If you want, you can make it the only mirror available by getting rid of everything else (using Template:Keypress), but it's usually a good idea to have a few more, in case the first one goes offline.

Tip:

Use the Mirrorlist Generator to get an updated list for your country. HTTP mirrors are faster than FTP, because of something called keepalive. With FTP, pacman has to send out a signal each time it downloads a package, resulting in a brief pause. For other ways to generate a mirror list, see Sorting mirrors and Reflector.

Arch Linux MirrorStatus reports various aspects about the mirrors such as network problems with mirrors, data collection problems, the last time mirrors have been synced, etc.

Note:

Whenever in the future you change your list of mirrors, always remember to force pacman to refresh all package lists with pacman -Syy. This is considered to be good practice and will avoid possible headaches. See Mirrors for more information.

If you're using an older installation medium, your mirrorlist might be outdated, which might lead to problems when updating Arch Linux (see FS#22510). Therefore it is advised to obtain the latest mirror information as described above.

Some issues have been reported in the Arch Linux forums regarding network problems that prevent pacman from updating/synchronizing repositories (see [1] and [2]). When installing Arch Linux natively, these issues have been resolved by replacing the default pacman file downloader with an alternative (see Improve Pacman Performance for more details). When installing Arch Linux as a guest OS in VirtualBox, this issue has also been addressed by using "Host interface" instead of "NAT" in the machine properties.

Install the base system

The -i switch can be omitted if you wish to install every package from the base and base-devel groups without prompting.

# pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel

Note: If pacman fails to verify your packages, check the system time with cal. If the system date is invalid (e.g. it shows year 2010), signing keys will be considered expired (or invalid), signature checks on packages will fail and installation will be interrupted. Make sure to correct the system time, either by doing so manually or with the ntp client, and retry running the pacstrap command. Refer to Time page for more information on correcting system time.

base: Software packages from the [core] repo to provide the minimal base environment.

base-devel: Extra tools from [core] such as make, and automake. Most beginners should choose to install it, as it will likely be needed to expand the system. The base-devel group will be required to install software from the Arch User Repository.

This will give you a basic Arch system. Other packages can be installed later using pacman.

Generate an fstab

Generate an fstab file with the following command. UUIDs will be used because they have certain advantages (see fstab#Identifying filesystems). If you would prefer to use labels instead, replace the -U option with -L.

Note: If you encounter errors running genfstab or later in the install process, do not run genfstab again; just edit the fstab file.

# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Warning: The fstab file should always be checked after generating it. If you made an EFI system partition earlier, then genfstab has incorrectly added options to your EFI system partition. This will in fact prevent your computer from booting from that drive, so you need to remove all options for the EFI partition except for noatime. For the other partitions that use it, be sure to replace "codepage=cp437" with "codepage=437" or else when you next reboot, any mounts with this option will fail and systemd will halt and drop into recovery mode. This should be fixed by linux 3.8

A few considerations:

Please take the time to align the columns properly, using spaces and the Template:Keypress key, like in the examples from the fstab page. This way it's easier to read and also easier to spot a potential problem.

Only the root (/) partition needs 1 for the last field. Everything else should have either 2 or 0 (see fstab#Field definitions).

The data=ordered option can be removed, because it will be used automatically whether you specify it or not. No point in cluttering up your fstab.

Though its presence will not do any harm, you may remove the tmpfs entry, as this is now handled by systemd's tmp.mount unit. To disable it, you must remove the fstab line and run:

# systemctl mask tmp.mount

Chroot and configure the base system

At this stage of the installation, you will configure the primary configuration files of your Arch Linux base system. These can either be created if they do not exist, or edited if you wish to change the defaults.

Closely following and understanding these steps is of key importance to ensure a properly configured system.

Locale

Locales are used by glibc and other locale-aware programs or libraries for rendering text, correctly displaying regional monetary values, time and date formats, alphabetic idiosyncrasies, and other locale-specific standards.

There are two files that need editing: locale.gen and locale.conf.

The locale.gen file is empty by default (everything is commented out) and you need to remove the # in front of the line(s) you want. You may uncomment more lines than just English (US), as long as you choose their UTF-8 encoding:

# nano /etc/locale.gen

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8

# locale-gen

This will run on every glibc upgrade, generating all the locales specified in /etc/locale.gen.

The locale.conf file doesn't exist by default. Setting only LANG should be enough. It will act as the default value for all other variables.

# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Note: If you set some other language than English at the beginning of the install, the above commands would be something like:

# echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
# export LANG=de_DE.UTF-8

To use other LC_* variables, first run locale to see the available options. An advanced example can be found here.

Warning: Using the LC_ALL variable is strongly discouraged because it overrides everything.

Console font and keymap

If you set a keymap at the beginning of the install process, load it now, as well, because the environment has changed. For example:

# loadkeys de-latin1
# setfont Lat2-Terminus16

To make them available after reboot, edit vconsole.conf:

# nano /etc/vconsole.conf

KEYMAP=de-latin1
FONT=Lat2-Terminus16

KEYMAP – Please note that this setting is only valid for your TTYs, not any graphical window managers or Xorg.

FONT – Available alternate console fonts reside in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/. The default (blank) is safe, but some foreign characters may show up as white squares or as other symbols. It's recommended that you change it to Lat2-Terminus16, because according to /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/README.Lat2-Terminus16, it claims to support "about 110 language sets".

Possible option FONT_MAP – Defines the console map to load at boot. Read man setfont. Removing it or leaving it blank is safe.

Warning: Using localtime may lead to several known and unfixable bugs. However, there are no plans to drop support for localtime.

# hwclock --systohc --localtime

If you have (or planning on having) a dual boot setup with Windows:

Recommended: Set both Arch Linux and Windows to use UTC. A quick registry fix is needed. Also, be sure to prevent Windows from synchronizing the time on-line, because the hardware clock will default back to localtime.

Not recommended: Set Arch Linux to localtime and disable any time-related services, like NTPd . This will let Windows take care of hardware clock corrections and you will need to remember to boot into Windows at least two times a year (in Spring and Autumn) when DST kicks in. So please don't ask on the forums why the clock is one hour behind or ahead if you usually go for days or weeks without booting into Windows.

Kernel modules

Tip: This is just an example, you do not need to set it. All needed modules are automatically loaded by udev, so you will rarely need to add something here. Only add modules that you know are missing.

For kernel modules to load during boot, place a *.conf file in /etc/modules-load.d/, with a name based on the program that uses them.

# nano /etc/modules-load.d/virtio-net.conf

# Load 'virtio-net.ko' at boot.
virtio-net

If there are more modules to load per *.conf, the module names can be separated by newlines. A good example are the VirtualBox Guest Additions.

Hostname

Note: You no longer need to edit /etc/hosts. The nss-myhostname package will provide host name resolution, and is installed on all systems by default.

Configure the network

You need to configure the network again, but this time for your newly installed environment. The procedure and prerequisites are very similar to the one described above, except we are going to make it persistent and automatically run at boot.

If your wireless adapter requires a firmware (as described in the above Establish an internet connection section and also here), install the package containing your firmware. For example:

# pacman -S zd1211-firmware

Connect to the network with wifi-menu (optionally checking the interface name with ip link, but usually it's wlan0), which will generate a profile file in /etc/network.d named after the SSID. There are also templates available in /etc/network.d/examples/ for manual configuration.

# wifi-menu

Enable the net-auto-wireless service, which will connect to known networks and gracefully handle roaming and disconnects:

# systemctl enable net-auto-wireless.service

Note:Netcfg also provides net-auto-wired, which can be used in conjunction with net-auto-wireless.

Make sure that the correct wireless interface (usually wlan0) is set in /etc/conf.d/netcfg:

# nano /etc/conf.d/netcfg

WIRELESS_INTERFACE="wlan0"

It is also possible to define a list of network profiles that should be automatically connected, using the AUTO_PROFILES variable in /etc/conf.d/netcfg. If AUTO_PROFILES is not set, all known wireless networks will be tried.

xDSL (PPPoE), analog modem or ISDN

Configure pacman

Pacman is the Arch Linux package manager. It is highly recommended to study and learn how to use it. Read man pacman, have a look at the pacman article, or check out the Pacman Rosetta article for a comparison to other popular package managers.

For repository selections and pacman options, edit pacman.conf:

# nano /etc/pacman.conf

Most people will want to use [core], [extra] and [community].

If you installed Arch Linux x86_64, it's recommended that you enable the [multilib] repository, as well (to be able to run both 32 bit and 64 bit applications):

Note: When choosing repos, be sure to uncomment both the [repo_name] header lines, as well as the lines below. Failure to do so will result in the selected repository being omitted! This is a very common error. A correct example for the multilib repository is found below.

Create an initial ramdisk environment

Tip: Most users can skip this step and use the defaults provided in mkinitcpio.conf. The initramfs image (from the /boot folder) has already been generated based on this file when the linux package (the Linux kernel) was installed earlier with pacstrap.

Here you need to set the right hooks if the root is on a USB drive, if you use RAID, LVM, or if /usr is on a separate partition.

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf as needed and re-generate the initramfs image with:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

Note: Arch VPS installations on QEMU (e.g. when using virt-manager) may need virtio modules in mkinitcpio.conf to be able to boot.

# nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

MODULES="virtio virtio_blk virtio_pci virtio_net"

Set the root password and add a regular user

Set the root password with:

# passwd

Warning: Linux is a multi-user operating system. You should not perform everyday tasks using the root account. It is considered a very poor practice and could be extremely dangerous. The root account should only be used for administrative tasks.

Then add a normal user account. For a more interactive way, you can use adduser. However, below is the non-interactive way. The user archie is just an example.

# useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash archie
# passwd archie

If you wish to start over, use userdel. The -r option will remove the user's home directory and its content, along with the user's settings (the so-called "dot" files).

Install and configure a bootloader

For BIOS motherboards

For BIOS systems, there are three bootloaders - Syslinux, GRUB, and LILO. Choose the bootloader as per your convenience. Below only Syslinux and GRUB are explained.

Syslinux is (currently) limited to loading only files from the partition where it was installed. Its configuration file is considered to be easier to understand. An example configuration can be found here.

GRUB is more feature-rich and supports more complex scenarios. Its configuration file(s) is more similar to a scripting language, which may be difficult for beginners to manually write. It is recommended that they automatically generate one.

Syslinux

Install the syslinux package and then use the syslinux-install_update script to automatically install the files (-i), mark the partition active by setting the boot flag (-a), and install the MBR boot code (-m):

Note: If you have partitioned the drive as GPT, install gptfdisk package, as well (pacman -S gptfdisk), because it contains sgdisk, which will be used to set the GPT-specific boot flag.

# pacman -S syslinux
# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

Configure syslinux.cfg to point to the right root partition. This step is vital. If it points to the wrong partition, Arch Linux will not boot. Change /dev/sda3 to reflect your root partition (if you partitioned your drive as in the example, your root partition is sda1). Do the same for the fallback entry.

For UEFI motherboards

For UEFI boot, the drive needs to be GPT-partitioned, and a UEFI System Partition (512 MiB or higher, FAT32, type EF00) must be present and mounted on /boot/efi. If you have followed this guide from the beginning, you've already done all of these.

While there are other UEFI bootloaders available, using EFISTUB is recommended. Below are instructions for setting up EFISTUB and GRUB.

Note: Syslinux does not yet support UEFI.

EFISTUB

The Linux kernel can act as its own bootloader using EFISTUB. This is the UEFI boot method recommended by developers and simpler compared to grub-efi-x86_64. The below steps set up rEFInd (a fork of rEFIt) to provide a menu for EFISTUB kernels, as well as for booting other UEFI bootloaders. You can also use gummiboot instead of rEFInd. Both rEFInd and gummiboot can detect Windows UEFI bootloader in case of dual-boot.

Copy /boot/vmlinuz-linux to /boot/efi/EFI/arch/vmlinuz-arch.efi. The .efi file extension is very important as some UEFI firmwares refuse to launch a file without this extension. Important: Remember that the file is called vmlinuz, but not vmlinux.

Every time the kernel and initramfs files are updated in /boot, they need to be updated in /boot/efi/EFI/arch. This can be automated either using systemd or using incron (for non-systemd setups).

3. In this guide you set up a bootloader GUI called rEFInd. Alternative bootloaders can be found on the page UEFI Bootloaders#Booting EFISTUB.
For the recommended rEFInd bootloader install the following packages:

The next command creates a menu entry for GRUB in the UEFI boot menu. However, as of grub-efi-x86_64 version 2.00, grub-install tries to create a menu entry, so running efibootmgr may not be necessary. See UEFI#efibootmgr for more info.